Changing Destiny
by Damonficgirl
Summary: After the final Cassie receives a letter that gives her hope that she could be with Adam again, but can Cassie and Adam be together again or is it just a cruel trap?


**Changing Destiny**

**Summary: Post Season 1 Cassie receives a letter that gives her hope that she could be with Adam again, but can Cassie and Adam be together again or is it just a cruel trap?**

The thick yellow parchment and the old fashioned handwriting spelling out her name filled Cassie with dread. Somehow, even before she opened the letter, Cassie sensed that it was from her father. The last person Cassie wanted to hear from, after everything he'd done, was John Blackwell. She'd tried to throw it out, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, so the letter was sitting right there in front of her on the dining table in her Grandmother's empty house. She'd tried ringing Diana for moral support but Diana had left town. Melissa was off partying with Faye, and things were so awkward with Adam. All she had left was Jake and she already leaned on him too often, it was ridiculous to ring him up, even though he did live across the road, to hold her hand while she opened a letter. Plus she was supposed to be some sort of kick ass witch, she was the one with the black magic, she should be able to handle a simple letter. But nothing was ever simple where John Blackwell was concerned. The idea that the letter might be cursed or bespelled flitted across her mind but Cassie pushed the thought aside, that was just paranoia talking… wasn't it?

With a heavy sigh Cassie opened the envelope and slipped out the single page of parchment. For a second she paused, wondering if she would feel the effects of a curse. No she felt fine, nervous but normal.

_**Dear Cassie,**_

_**I know you don't want to hear how sorry I am that I'm not the father you wanted, I still hope that one day you might see that I do love you and that your rightful place is beside me. You are a Blackwell and you will never fit in anywhere else. **_

Yeah right, Cassie thought, standing up. Cassie was about to rip the letter up and throw it in the trash when one word jumped out at her from the third paragraph: Adam.

_**If you don't believe that I care about you, know that I have only hurt you because I thought it was what was best for you. As evidence of my goodwill and affection I have taken great pains to make the one gesture that I thought might make some small progress in raising your esteem of me. I have removed the curse which kept you and Adam apart. I am sorry I could not do so earlier, it pained me to see your distress but you must understand powerful forces were at work. Just know this, I have nothing to gain by assisting you in recommencing your relationship with the Conant-boy without any danger to the other members of your circle, rather this gesture has come at considerable cost and he is no fan of mine and unlikely to encourage or support any future contact with me, but I do this as your father, hoping that in this selfless act you are reassured of my love for you.**_

_**Yours**_

_**John Blackwell**_

Cassie gaped at the paper. By the time she reached the end her of the letter her hands were shaking. She couldn't believe it. She didn't believe it. Odds were that it was a trick and if she and Adam… if she and Adam tried…. No it was far too dangerous to test. Jake almost died last time…. And anyway the elixir had taken it all away; Adam didn't even feel that way about her anymore. Tears welled up in her eyes. How dare her father send this, taunting her with the very thing that she wanted most and would never have? It was cruel.

She sat down and gave into the sobs that wracked her body, the noise of her crying all the louder in the quite, isolation of her grandmother's house. She cried until there were no tears left and then she crawled into bed, hungry and tried and dirty and feeling all the more miserable knowing that she would have to wash the sheets herself because there was no one left to look after her.

Then the doorbell rang.

It was probably Jake coming over to check up on her, or a neighbour bringing over a casserole, Cassie was going to ignore it but then the chime came again, this time more insistent. If it was really important they'd call her, she reasoned glaring at her mobile phone. Fear should have made her get out of the bed. It could be witch hunters. But Cassie was beyond fear, beyond caring. Then the tap, tap of stones on her window shocked her and filled her with hope and confusion. Heaving herself out of bed Cassie went to the window, glancing automatically across at Jake's – there was no light on so if it was witch hunters she was definitely on her on. She tried to gather her power, ready to defend herself, but she was so exhausted wondered if she could, she wondered if it was natural for her time to run out as it seemed to for all the other women in her family.

It wasn't a witch hunter below her window; it was Adam, a broad smile across his face, his grey-blue eyes shining. "Cassie it's me, let me up," he called.

Puzzled Cassie reluctantly plodded down the stairs and opened the door and stood slightly to the side to let him in. She knew she must look awful but what difference did it make?

Adam just stood there, gawking at her in speechlessly, his eyes searching hers for something, Cassie wasn't sure what.

"What is it Adam?" Cassie finally asked in frustration. "It's late, I was in bed."

"I remember. I mean really remember. I feel everything. At first I thought it was just me, but it can't be, I can feel something has shifted, like I've woken up from a nightmare… I might maybe it was the skull… Cassie?" His last word was uncertain and tense.

"You... you're saying..?" Cassie's blue eyes beseeched his.

"I'm in love with you Cassie Blake, and I always have been. But what does this mean, why has it come back? Are we just doomed to repeat our mistakes or has something happened to change our destiny?" Adam asked doubt and fear beginning to fall on him again. He was suddenly questioning himself, questioning the hope that had brought him to her doorstep.

Suddenly Cassie emerged out of the lethargy of grief and sorrow that had overcome her since her grandmother's death. "I, I think my father broke the curse," she mumbled and then, even though she told herself it was too soon and too dangerous, her hands reached for his face and pulled him towards her and they were kissing on her doorstep. The kiss began deep and desperate, searching, and then slowed and progressed to a single touch of lips ending when their foreheads rocked against one another. They were both slightly out of breath.

"Why?" Adam asked breathlessly. "How? I thought it was something I did with the skull."

"The crystal skull? You were supposed to get rid of it."

"I... I was… I will… but I was holding it and I was thinking about how powerless we've both been,… how if we could just change our destiny…. We could be happy again."

"But you said the elixir worked, you said you were happy."

"I lied Cassie, I never totally stopped. I could tell something was missing. It's been coming back to me slowly. But like…like when you're listening to someone under water and you can't quite make out what the other person is saying. I could tell I should love you, that I could love you, that I wanted to love you, but it felt like the elixir numbed that whole part of me, the part of me that loved you, the best part of me."

"But now it's back? You're back?" she asked uncertainly, still unable to believe the way his body pushed against hers or the way their fingers knitted together automatically.

"It's back. I love you. I'm never going to stop loving you," Adam promised. "And you?"

"The elixir never worked on me," Cassie breathed.

"I don't understand, you said…" shock hit Adams face like a truck crashing into a motorcycle.

"I never felt any different. I said what I thought you wanted to hear, I didn't want to make things any more difficult that they had to be."

"You should have told me."

"I couldn't. I couldn't stand to have you apologise for not loving me."

"Shh, I understand," Adam soothed, and then he kissed her again, slowly and sweetly. "It's over now."

"What if he lied? What if it's a trap? What if Jake gets sick again?" Cassie asked desperately. "What if we never know if it's safe?"

"We saved Jake once, and we have the crystal skull now, Cassie we have to know, we can't live like this, we can't throw our lives away just in case he's lying."

"It's too dangerous."

"You said your father broke the curse, how did you know?"

"He sent me a letter."

"Why would he lie?"

"To kill Jake he would," Cassie hated to admit it, but she knew her words were true. She'd put them all in danger before because she'd trusted her father, she wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"What would that prove?" Adam asked, knowing rationally that he agreed with her but not wanting to.

"To weaken the circle."

"Wait, we had to…." Adam gave her a knowing look, "before anything bad happened last time. There are a lot of things we can do without triggering the curse. How about I come in and we can use your book to try and find out for certain if the curse has been broken, in the mean time I just want to be with you Cassie, even if we just talk. I feel like I haven't seen you properly, I just want to look at you, the real you, without that stupid elixir blurring my vision." There was a note of pleading in his voice that Cassie couldn't deny.

"But that's it, we have to be careful, we can't lose control again?" Cassie gave him a warning look.

"I'll be a perfect gentleman," Adam promised giving her his best boy scout look.

"Okay," she relented. "But you're sleeping on the sofa."

Adam grinned and hand in hand they walked into the house. It was awkward closing the door with only one hand but Cassie had to admit, she wasn't ready to let go either. Hope was a dangerous thing, part of her worried that if they discovered that they couldn't really be together again she wouldn't cope a second time, that she'd lose what was left of her goodness, but another part of her told her that if holding on to Adam was the only thing keeping her from slipping away into the darkness for now it was better than giving up.

**Author's Note: So what do you think, is it worth continuing? **

**PS – I know the curse is fake and it was Cassie's father that made the birds die and Jake get sick – in my first draft of the letter from Cassie's father I imagined John confessing that he faked the curse and asking Cassie to have faith in him again because he was finally coming clean, but then I realised that he would get so much more out of pretending that he broke in and it seems much more in character for him to try and manipulate her that way, than to tell her the truth. **


End file.
